Summer transfer thread 2022

Yep. Peanuts

Initial £64m. A lot of money for a player with only one top division season under his belt, albeit not a top 5 league. But Benfica do have history with selling players for large fees. The £64m is not £100m though, and there's be a lot of 100m talk bandied about.

£64m (€75m) seems pretty in line for strikers moving in the last 12-18 months with comparable experience levels, with Vlahovic moving for £73m in January and Osinhem moving for £67.5m the summer previous. Lukaku moved for £100m last July and has not exactly torn up trees. Kane was linked with a £100m+ transfer. Large fees does not equate to success and there will be some pressure on him, but I think Klopp will manage this.

If that fee does eventually rise to the full £85m, which is a very large fee, it's dependant on player & team success including Liverpool winning the Champions League. If Nunez scores the goals to win the CL, and trigger those bonuses, I'm not sure many within Liverpool will be upset. Nunez has to be a success in order to reach the top payable fee.

The 100 million was a euro amount was it not? Which seems to be pretty accurate from the sterling amounts given and the reported targets to hit the clauses.

Benfica will release the financials anyway so won't have to wait too long to confirm either way.

And just like Man City, you have a knack for fudging numbers.

Transfer fee of £12m, potentially rising to £15m if certain add-ons are met.

The "hasn't made a senior appearance" comment is a bit of a misnomer though, especially for a keeper. Really, it's because he's so good that he hasn't played for you. If he hadn't been on loan for the entirety of the past 2 years, he likely would have a few appearances, like how Scott Carson played last year.. But he was already good enough to go straight out and play every week at a decent level despite his youth. With 73 senior games, and 10 full senior international matches, he's about as tried and tested as any 20 year old keeper ever can be really. As I said though, I'm sure City would've rather'd keep him another couple of years as his trajectory is only going one direction, and with the scarcity of quality keepers around the place it's likely he'll be worth more before too long. I'm not at all saying it's a bad fee, it's just that you see him, and kinda think the sky's the limit for this kid, so to me it looks a better fee for the buyer than the seller.

I don't think anyone is in any doubt that those are two absolutely fantastic transfers - in terms of overall value Alvarez is an especially brilliant one I'm very jealous of (as was Ferran Torres himself when he joined). Obviously while Haaland's fee is super low with his buyout, his wages and extra costs make him unattainable for all but a small handful of clubs.

Or they could rise through the ranks organically with smart recruitment and selling on players for large fees, reinvesting that back into the playing squad again. Brighton & Brentford for example. Their success has been gained.

Buying your way up the table and leagues is a different story. The whole of Germany hates RB Leipzig for this reason, and have a disdain for Hoffenheim too. Their success has been bought.

Brentford & Brighton could start to challenge for the European spots if they can continue on a similar trajectory.

Leicester have done it via mostly smart recruitment. Burnley challenged for top 6 a few years ago and finished 7th. West Ham have broken in to the top 6 in recent years.

Buying success is not the same thing where a sportswashing owner comes in and spunks £100m's every year on new shiny toys just to race to the top. There's nothing smart or clever about that. 'Let's just buy the fastest car with the best driver and we will win the race. No innovative engineering or existing driver development needed'.

At last a bit of honesty and reality.

How is it?

What is stopping them from further continuing their smart investment and growing like they are currently?

What is stopping them from using the PL TV money to work their way up along the ladder and eventually getting in to Europe competition and then using that money to increase the quality in their squad, becoming a staple EL side and then kicking on another level again?

I genuinely don't hate City or Chelsea as clubs. i want them to lose when they're my team's rival in a title race, or going for trophy, that's it. I cheered when City won the league over Utd in 2012. and i've felt nothing for any league they've won until they beat us (Liverpool) to titles. if Leicester, Spurs, Arsenal or Chelsea had won it, I'd have felt the same.

Utd are the only club that I know most Liverpool fans hate - as in, if they never win a game again, they'd be delighted. and they feel the same about us, i'm sure.

City are an inconvenience as a club, but for me, they could be any state-run club, or club with a lot of sportswashing money. i'd feel the same way. i don't like that they stop my club from winning trophies, but short of that, I feel very little. it's the ownership behind the club I don't like, not the club itself.

of course you feel as strongly about City as I do about Liverpool. that's not in doubt.

i'm just saying I don't hate City at all, never mind hate them for upsetting the apple cart. in this fan's eyes, there is no apple cart, that's my point. bar Utd, I merely root against the team who are my club's direct competition. that happens to be City at the moment, and the means by which they do it is what I'd dislike. nothing to do with the club itself, its fans or any apple cart it might be disturbing.